Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Book 11 of 2016 -- Studying Congregations

This
book was recommended by a classmate 15 years ago. So I guess it was
time to read it.

One
of the realities of ministry is that in order to provide leadership
you need to constantly be gauging who and where the congregation is
(both in their self-understanding and in reality – because those
two are not always the same thing).

This
book gives tools and perspectives on how we do that analysis.
Sometimes you do it intentionally to deal with a specific issue or
problem (or “mess” as one quote in the book suggests we do not
solve problems – we handle messes). Sometimes you do it
intentionally as part of a visioning/re-visioning and mission/goal
setting process. You are always doing it at an unconscious level.

I
liked that the authors gave a variety of frames or lenses to use in
this process of studying. How we look at a situation will often
change what we see. Years ago, in my first year theology class I
remember the prof saying that the questions are far more important
than the answers. Same with choosing what way you will look at a
situation. Those things shape the answers we gain. I also
appreciated the constant reminder that this sort of study is NOT best
done by one person. You need a variety of eyes to get the clearest
look at the picture.

But
I have a major concern. It is my sense that organizations, perhaps
particularly the church sometimes tend to act unreflectively. And so
taking time to reflect and study is a good thing. But organizations,
and certainly churches, sometimes swing
too far the other way. Study and reflection can become the endpoint.
We go too far into navel-gazing and never quite get to the action
portion (admittedly I recognize this because it is a trap I
personally can fall into). Sometimes it feels that the study has not
quite given us the magic information that we need to know exactly
what action to take.

This
book is helpful in giving tools and methods and perspectives as to
how we study our congregations. But at the same time I am not about
to put it into practice immediately (at least as a formal study
process). Sometimes we need to act so that we have something new to
reflect upon....